


You Are Here

by Malu_3 (Grainne)



Series: Merlin Summer Pornathon 2014 [3]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Animal biology, Aquariums, M/M, Museums, Summer Pornathon 2014
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-13
Updated: 2014-08-13
Packaged: 2018-02-12 23:15:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2128113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grainne/pseuds/Malu_3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><b>How might we improve your experience?</b> <i>Let me blow you in Rainforests of the World.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	You Are Here

**Author's Note:**

> Entry for Challenge 3: Trades and Professions; any resemblance to actual museums/exhibits is entirely incidental, hopefully forgivable and... fortunate? SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL MUSEUMS, PEOPLE. IT'S HOW PEOPLE GET ~~LAID~~ PAID ;-)

Merlin is Aquarium (staff) and Arthur is Science in Action (summer volunteer). Arthur is also newly escaped from Pendragon Financial. This summer is all about being his own man – his own man's man, too.

Merlin looks lethal in a wetsuit. Arthur dreams of fucking him in the tunnel under the flooded forest, blue light bathing his pale skin, his beloved fish on all sides, old Kilgharrah cruising overhead.

He makes the first move via suggestion box slip, tucked into Merlin's locker.

 **How might we improve your experience?** _Let me blow you in Rainforests of the World._

Up and up the spiral ramp after the last of the days' tours exit the airlock. Up to the canopy, Arthur going down on his knees between the gecko and reed frog displays, butterflies trembling in the humid air above their heads.

One lands on his hair, and Merlin insists that they freeze like that, Arthur's throat stuffed full, until he can coax it off. 

"Can't blame her," he murmurs as he cards his fingers through Arthur's hair, thumbs one hollowed-out cheek. "You look like a good place to rest."

Arthur swallows, half-choking, and tells himself that’s the sole reason for the sting in his eyes.

* * *

His first day, Arthur had committed the grievous sin of Buying Bottled Water, earning himself an impassioned lecture and subsequent weeks of hot-eyed glares. After the rainforest, they simmer into something new.

Arthur finds the slip rolled and threaded through the cap of his new eco-bottle.

 **How might we improve your experience?** _Want to see how the pros do Discovery Night? Aqua. stairs Thurs. at 8._

Arthur follows him down, past the shy octopus and the weedy, ethereal sea dragons. One floor up, the city's young elite are being herded into the planetarium.

"In here." Merlin jerks his head towards their newest exhibit: Animal Attraction. He moves the barrier, switches on the recessed spots. The walls are painted in hot colors, shades of red and orange.

Arthur crowds him, inhaling his shampoo, the pervasive underlying tang of brine. Merlin smells like round two waiting to happen. He's babbling about snails.

"…love darts. Literally shoot them into one another. See, there's this mucous on them that inhibits sperm digestion, so more of it is – "

"Snails are into comeplay?" Arthur murmurs. "Kinky." 

They play this like it's a game – Merlin reels off facts, Arthur tries to distract him – but the truth is, Arthur gets off on hearing Merlin enthuse over the creatures in his care.

"And _these_ beauties – " Merlin slides along the wall, flips round so his back's to the tank. He's flushed. " – are amazing. Clownfish can change their sex, you know, when the – " 

"Please don't." Arthur runs a thumb over Merlin's Adam's apple before reaching down and cupping him between the legs. "I quite like you as you are."

Merlin's smile turns sly. He presses his bulge into Arthur's palm. "You're just glad I'm not a female tarantula…or a mantis. You'd be liable to lose your head after."

"Some would say I've already lost it, carrying on with a man who gets hard talking about post-coital cannibalism."

Chuckling, Merlin pushes Arthur away, drags him to the next set of displays. 

Bower birds, betta fish and hermaphroditic worms: flash, fight and flexibility. Scent-marking. Claim-staking. Arthur gets it, feels the same urges at a visceral level. He hooks his fingers into Merlin's belt loops, hauls him back against his own erection.

When Merlin tells him about the splash tetras, Arthur flicks a tongue against his ear. At the anglerfish panel, he noses Merlin's collar aside, bites down gently on the soft skin.

"Would you like that then? If I never let go – just burrowed up inside you and stayed." 

"Yes," Merlin says, newly breathless, hands suddenly scrabbling at his belt. "Yes, _yes._ Fuck, Arthur, c'mon."

Arthur gets his cock out, fumbles the condom on and kisses the fresh sweat breaking out along the back of Merlin's neck. He spits on two fingers, but when he forces them between the taut cheeks he finds he's been beaten to the task; Merlin's all slick and squelchy with lube. Arthur wants to tease him for his assumption, but mostly he wants…

"I'm here," he whispers, gripping his cock, rubbing it through the wet before pushing in hard.

Merlin gasps, hums, braces his hands on either side of the text panel. "Yes you are."

 **How might we improve your experience?** _Come home with me._

 **How might we improve your experience?** _Stay._


End file.
